Category Archives: Other Voices

A young woman who was brutally attacked and shot in the face by her ex-boyfriend spoke to a San Francisco conference of health professionals about teen dating abuse. Interviewed by KGO-TV in San Francisco, Johanna Orozco has become a teen educator who advocated for laws to require dating abuse education in Ohio schools. Her message: Ask teens about their relationships. “This is something the whole community, the whole world needs to get together and do something about it and make a change,” says Orozco. See her moving interview at http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=8602122.

Being abused is not something we plan on. It’s not something we see coming. It’s not something we expect to happen. But it does. Every day. It happened to me. It could happen to you. It could be happening to one of your friends right now and you would never even know. This is my story. Please listen and take with stride all of the information I’m giving you. Because if we don’t try and stop this now, it could end up being too late.

He was my best friend in high school. He was awkward and different, but we got along really well. He always seemed so sweet and he always made me laugh. I graduated the year before him. After he got out and I was in college, we started hanging out again. We reconnected. And it was just like old times. After a few months we saw more in each other and started dating. And it was wonderful. We were young and in love. I saw myself spending the rest of my life with him. I could picture it and I loved it. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Recently, DASH received an email from “T” (we are protecting her identity for privacy reasons), describing her abusive dating relationship. She agreed to allow us to post her compelling story in her own words. Because her story is quite involved and each incident needs to be shared, we will post it in two parts. Part one describes the intense beginning.